When it comes to figuring out when is the best time to try and conceive, and when is the best time to try and avoid it, you can enter into some murky waters.
Conception is not cut and dry, and every single woman on this planet is totally different to the next. In addition to this, one time you might get pregnant, another you might not – pot luck springs to mind when it comes to fertility.
One question which gets asked a lot is whether it is possible to get pregnant on the last day of a period.
The answer? Yes.
In many cases this has happened, in many cases it hasn’t, but the bottom line is that it is entirely possible.
Let’s explore why.
The End of a Period and Possible Conception
For some reason, we automatically and falsely believe that we cannot fall pregnant when we are on our period. Mother Nature deciding to visit for a week does not automatically grant you immunity, in fact, in some cases, if you think you’re immune, you’re playing with pregnancy fire!
Whilst the possibility compared to other times of your cycle is lower, that doesn’t make it impossible. It completely depends upon your natural cycle, i.e. some women have a 28 to 30 day cycle, some go shorter, whereas some go a little longer. If your cycle is the shorter version, your chances of pregnancy at the end of your period are higher than those who have a longer or standard cycle.
Why?
Because in this instance, your ovulation will generally occur earlier, and we know that after unprotected sex, sperm can stay alive inside your body for anything up to five days. Hardy little creatures, you’ll agree. This means it’s entirely possible to have sex on the last day of your period, when things are a little less messy, let’s say, and then a few days later when your ovulation kicks in, the sperm still alive inside you causes fertilization. Hey presto! You’re pregnant!
You cannot predict when ovulation is going to occur, even if you buy those new-fangled kits which try and tell you when ovulation is about to kick in. Every woman is different, and sometimes a cycle goes haywire for no reason whatsoever. That means that if you have sex towards the end of your period, there is still a chance that you could become pregnant, and there is no way of knowing either way until you miss your next period and that test comes back with a positive sign.
To sum up, the chances might be lower, but the possibility cannot be ruled out. If you don’t want to get pregnant, make sure you’re using protection, it’s that simple. On the other hand, if you do want to get pregnant, well, carry on as you were!
So, You Can Get Pregnant at Any Time During Your Cycle?
Basically, yes. There is no time that we can categorically, 100% say that pregnancy is not possible. This is again down to the fact that every woman has a different cycle, and the other fact that sperm likes to survive for a long period of time. This combination makes it tricky to predict when the best time to try to conceive is, or indeed, the best time to try not to.
Generally speaking, a woman with a regular 28-30 day cycle is more fertile during days 11 to 21. Remember, sperm can live for up to five days after sex, so it’s possible to become pregnant even after that, if you have unprotected sex at the very end of your so-called fertility window.
We could get into some very complicated maths here, and say that if you had sex on this day, and the sperm lived for this long, you could get pregnant on that day, but it’s really not useful at all. The bottom line is that yes, you can get pregnant whilst on your period, and yes, you can get pregnant if you have sex at the end of a period.
Good News or Not?
Whether this is good news to you or not completely depends upon whether you want to become pregnant, or whether you don’t! If you’re trying, then it’s certainly not going to rule out pregnancy if you try around this time. Basically, the best advice when trying to conceive is to have intercourse as much as you can, because nobody is ever able to completely predict the best and most fertile time for a woman to conceive.
On the other hand, if you’re not trying to conceive, trying to figure out ‘safe’ times is not the most reliable and safest way to avoid pregnancy! There are more than enough highly reliable birth control methods out there, which will serve you better, until the times comes when you want to try and start a family.
Female bodies are certainly complicated things, and when it comes to trying to work out when you can and can’t conceive, it gets even more complicated. Simplify it down and simply assume that the more you try, the higher your chances!